This podcast is produced and presented by Lee Millam.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD, is a clinically recognised disorder which affects around 1-2% of the population. It is debilitating and paralysing. People with OCD experience intensely negative, repetitive and intrusive thoughts, combined with a chronic feeling of doubt or danger (obsessions). In order to quell the thought or quieten the anxiety, they will often repeat an action, again and again (compulsions). [definition from OCD Action]

Psychologists believe the condition may run in families or that people with OCD have an imbalance of serotonin in the brain.

Now new research is being done at Goldsmiths, University of London that could, in the future, help with treatment. It identifies the precuneus, considered as a central hub between posterior and prefrontal brain regions (and often involved with processing of self-attribution, responsibility and causal reasoning) as a key area for intervention. 

In the meantime, for those with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, its impact can be devastating as Imogen and Maria explain....

Maria: I was affected by imperfections in goods I'd bought, or around the flat I'd see a mark and that would bother me - I'd have to try and cover it or do something with it.  And if something was really bad, I'd lose the ability to function.  I'd go into a deep depression and just sit there, not being able to do anything.  And that led eventually to a nervous breakdown when I was about 32, which is when it was diagnosed.

Imogen:  I can remember I was really scared of being told off in school.  I'd do everything I could to prevent being told off.  I'd get all my school clothes ready in the morning and I wouldn't go in my bedroom after 7am.  I'd get changed in the hallway, I'd have everything out there.  If I'd left something in my room I'd have to get someone else to go in and get it for me because I just felt 'no I can't'.  I thought if I did go in something bad was going to  happen - I wasn't aware of what - perhaps getting told off at school, or someone getting hurt - I just didn't know.

LM:Help is available from the helpline OCD Action.

Olivia Bamber, OCD Action:  OCD can affect anyone of any age, in any job, any gender.  From as young as possible to as old as possible.  Anyone.

Maria: You feel that if you don't think a certain way some harm will happen to someone you love or you care about. Sometimes you have to count certain numbers in your head.  You do things but you don't realise it because you are so living with it all the  time. Half the time you don't realise what you are doing. Most people with OCD have to keep washing their hands or performing tasks all the time, whereas I don't do that. Mine is a different form of OCD - checking things for imperfections etc.  When I was diagnosed, I had peculiar obsessions - ones I don't have any more. But I still have OCD.

LM:  What 'peculiar' obsessions?

Maria: When I had my nervous breakdown it was over my little dog, Cherie.  Initially my partner bought her for me as a puppy because I thought if I had a dog it would help the OC - it would sort it out - but unfortunately she became the focus of my OCD. She was imperfect.  I'd look into her eyes, see a vein that I thought shouldn't be there, and I'd keep checking her and checking her, until I got to a point where I thought there is something not right here, I've got to do something.  I don't want to harm her - it was the worst fear I ever had of harming that little dog that I loved (and I did love her) but I couldn't function, I couldn't do anything. I'd be laying in bed and I remember just crying, I couldn't bear her near me.  I completely broke down and I was taken to hospital and diagnosed with OCD.

Imogen:  I had great support from my family.  They took me to see a CAMS specialist (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service).